West Pride 2026: Trans Excellence – short film program with SAQMI, Transammans and Reclaim Pride

After last year’s success we are back again! <3
Welcome to enjoy a short film program by and for trans people!

SAQMI creates an artistic space for and by trans people. With a fantastic film program as a starting point, we talk about what we have seen together after the screening. This year’s program is filled with visual experiences, existences beyond the ordinary, snails, mermaids and lots of music. See them in a room where trans is the norm and where w(å)ld is banned. WELCOME!

Doors open 17.00, film starts at 17:30.
We stay as long as you want. After the film screening we will hang out in the garden if the weather allows.

Limited seating so come early! It will be crowded, hot and nice. SAQMI’s space Frigga is well known for being a safe space for trans people. Welcome and remember to take care of each other. Voluntary entrance! Support your local queer community!

TRANS EXELLENCE PROGRAM:

Chevron Moustache by Kolbrún Inga Söring, 2025, 18:15 min.
We Owe You Nothing by REMBODY, 2023, 5:32 min.
PREVIEW: Slugs, Snails and Slurs by Zafira Vrba Woodski, 2025, 5 min. (Swedish Language)
Roads to Relief – by Still Sam, 2024, 8:34 min.

Shapeshifter X by Raymonde Gaunoux, 2026, 36:48 min.

Total Length: 75 min

Short Break (10-15 min)

After the screening there will be a moderated talk with Juno Frisk (Transammans), Theo Vasilopoulos, (Reclaim Pride, SAQMI), Still Sam and Raymonde Gaunoux. The talk will be in English.

Live Technician: Siri Landgren. File Technician: Careen Koleilat. Curator: Anna Linder.

Reclaim Pride GBG is an anti-capitalist movement for and by LGBTQIA+people, working towards a Pride without commercialization and pinkwashing.

SAQMI – The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images is one of the only archives in the world for queer moving images.

Transammans is Sweden’s largest association for transgender people and their loved ones.

ACCESSIBILITY – FRIGGA:

The program takes place on the ground floor, but there are some steps and small doorways. The narrowest door is 77cm. There is sound amplification but no ear loop.

Feel free to contact us if you want to come and we will help you get a good place: info(at)saqmi.se or call: 070-6430151.

More about the films, artists and their work:

Chevron Moustache by Kolbrún Inga Söring, 2025, 18:15 min

Chevron Moustache is a film born through my performative processes and creative writing. The film uses a script which was first a performance both in different installment editions but also in its entirety. The film takes on camp and theatrical essay film characteristics. Through processes of rethinking and expanding upon the story of The Little Mermaid a narrative emerges around body modification, desire and self representation – focusing on the euphoric experience of gaining a mascara moustache.

Kolbrún Inga Söring (they/them) is a gender queer artist based in Gothenburg whose work spans several areas of artistic expression from performance, video work and site-specific installation to community cultivation and cultural production. Their personal artistic research explores possibilities of using the body as an autonomous site of provocation; problematising cis-heteronormative ideals while questioning the deeply rooted myth of masculine desire. Söring uses a process of performative writing: rethinking popular narratives by unpacking their own troubled relationship with said ideals and desires within a framework of self-representational body politics, body modification and politics of desire. Söring is best known in Gothenburg for their work with their artist duo Status Queer, and their collective CULT of Drag, their free Drag school Initiations, their extensive engagement in engagi ng with, building and providing culture to and by LGBTQIA+ individuals. Söring has also worked extensively with SAQMI taking on various roles like: curator, producer, technician and social media manager.

We Owe You Nothing by REMBODY, 2023, 5:32 min.

The music video for Rembody’s debut song We Owe You Nothing.

Video recording and production in collaboration with artists Kai Merke and Mo Moesgaard. Paper Mache Beings made by Anne Louise Fink and Mo Moesgaard. Recorded in the North Forest in Kulhuse, Denmark. Edited by Silas Lilo Jensen aka Rembody.

Silas Lilo Jensen works at SAQMI as a technician and podcast producer. They are a musician, artist and culture producer with many years of experience in organizing queer meeting places and events.

Silas Lilo Jensen jobbar på SAQMI som tekniker och podcastproducent. Den är musiker, konstnär och kulturproducent med många års erfarenhet av att arrangera queera mötesplatser och evenemang.

PREVIEW SCREENING:
Slugs, Snails and Slurs by Zafira Vrba Woodski, 2025, 5 min
(only with Swedish language)

Slugs, Snails and Slurs is based on questions and statements that trans people are expected to answer. Unlike in real life, where a clever answer could make the situation even more unsafe, the slugs in the film have an endless supply of flirtatious, witty and sarcastic comebacks.

Zafira Vrba Woodski is a Swedish-Czech artist, poet, death doula, and interfaith minister working in Sweden and internationally. Zafira’s artistic practice explores chosen kinship, queer historiography, grief work, contemporary archaeology, mental health, and trans perspectives. Alongside their artistic practice, Zafira runs High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies, offering support, ceremonies, and rites of passage for LGBTQIA+ communities. @revzafira

Slugs, Snails and Slurs är baserat på frågor och påståenden som transpersoner förväntas svara på. Till skillnad från verkligheten, där ett smart svar ibland kan riskera att situationen blir ännu mer otrygg, så har sniglarna i filmen ett evigt lager av flörtiga, roliga och spydiga svar.

Zafira Vrba Woodski är svensk-tjeckist konstnär, poet, dödsdoula och interfaith minister verksam i Sverige och internationellt. Zafiras konst utforskar valda släktskap, queer historieskrivning, sorgearbete, nutidsarkeologi, psykisk hälsa och transperspektiv. Bredvid konstnärskapet driver Zafira High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies som erbjuder stöd och ceremonier till hbtqia+communities @revzafira.

Roads to Relief – a queer roadmovie by Still Sam
2024, 8:34 min

Roads to Relief is a journey with the ambition to find the feeling relief. Through confusion and pain, but also care, rest and euphoria. The film is made out of around 5000 still images from the bigger project Stories of relief, collaborative portraits communicating gender euphoria.

Roads to Relief – a queer roadmovie är en resa med målet att landa i känslan lättnad. Genom förvirring och smärta, men också omsorg, vila och eufori. Filmen är gjord av ca 5000 stillbilder ur projektet Stories of Relief, som genom kollaborativa porträtt vill uttrycka känslan av könseufori. 

Photography, editing and text: Still Sam
Soundtrack: Sebastian Kant  
Collaborators/participants: Andra af Querfurt, Sian Hedberg, Alex Seth Sandahl, Jon Alm, Storm Dunder, Sebastian Kant, Still Sam

Still Sam works experimental with the collaboration as a central concept, looking for what emerges from connections and in-between positions. The collaborations stretches from experiments where the material agency is allowed to direct the way by embracing chance, to concrete collaborations between artists and to the meeting with the viewer in interactive installations. Their practice uses photography as a starting point, but does not stick to the medium. They work with stop-motion film, games, puzzles and interactive performances, among else. Currently studying a bachelor in fine art photography at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg after 25 years as a tattooer. 

Still Sam arbetar experimentellt med samarbetet och det som uppstår i kopplingar och mellanrum som centralt koncept. Samarbetet sträcker sig från materiella experiment där materialets egen agens får styra genom anammandet av slump, till konkreta kollaborationer mellan konstnärer och till mötet med betraktaren i interaktiva installationer. Dens praktik tar utgångspunkt i fotografi, men håller sig inte till mediet. Den arbetar med bland annat stop-motion film, spel, pussel och interaktivt performance. Den studerar för närvarande en konstnärlig kandidat i fotografi på HDK-Valand i Göteborg, efter att ha arbetat i 25 år som tatuerare.

SHAPESHIFTER X is a hybrid music video documentary exploring transgender embodiment, narrative and voice through sound and image. Structured around nine musical chapters interwoven with interviews with transgender artists and advocates, the film aims to amplify transness and nuture transgender community within within artistic fields. Using archival footage from different stages of the filmmaker’s life alongside newly created material, the work connects past and present selves through sonic, poetic and visual collage, depicting emotional states of struggle, healing, and becoming through a transgender gaze.

Inspired by Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto and transgender interpretations of mermaid and seahorse analogy, the film aims to highlight the empowering nature of shapeshifting transgender bodies. The material for the music and film was created in collaboration with 28 artists and transgender advocates. 21 of these collaborators identify as transgender or non-binary.

Raymonde Gaunoux is a transgender danish-north american composer, singer and multimedia artist with an MFA in Experimental Composition & Creation from The Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. As a performing and composing artist, Raymonde has for many years been engaged with representing queer and transgender narratives in music and popular culture. He is currently working within the field of mixed media, that centers transgender visibility.

The event is supported by City of Gothenburg, Pronto.